KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) Reaches New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) shares reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $268.41 and last traded at $266.2240, with a volume of 952014 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $259.56.

Analyst Ratings Changes

KLAC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of KLA from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of KLA from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Argus raised their price target on shares of KLA from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of KLA from $150.50 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research upped their price objective on KLA from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $345.84.

KLA Trading Up 2.8%

The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $195.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $160.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 3.03. The firm has a market cap of $348.51 billion, a PE ratio of 75.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 1.50.

KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The semiconductor company reported $9.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $8.48. The business had revenue of $3.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.37 billion. KLA had a net margin of 35.66% and a return on equity of 91.89%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 EPS. KLA has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 8.870-10.870 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that KLA Corporation will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

KLA Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th were issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 18th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. KLA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.06%.

KLA announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, March 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $7.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the semiconductor company to buy up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other KLA news, CEO Richard P. Wallace sold 45,120 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.34, for a total transaction of $9,986,725.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 713,830 shares in the company, valued at approximately $157,996,990.71. The trade was a 5.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 91.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of KLA

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of KLAC. Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in KLA during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of KLA during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of KLA during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Aventura Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of KLA in the fourth quarter worth approximately $55,000. Finally, Nemes Rush Group LLC grew its position in KLA by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 48 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 7 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.65% of the company’s stock.

About KLA

KLA is a provider of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related microelectronics industries. The company designs and manufactures equipment, software and services used by chipmakers to analyze and control manufacturing processes, detect defects, measure critical dimensions and improve yield across wafer fabrication, photomask and packaging operations. KLA’s offerings are aimed at enabling production of advanced logic, memory, and specialty devices at progressively smaller technology nodes and more complex package structures.

Its product portfolio includes optical and e-beam inspection systems, metrology tools for critical dimension and film measurement, mask and reticle inspection platforms, as well as enterprise software and data analytics that aggregate process data and drive automated process control.